A39669:776
The Method of Grace
The method of grace, in bringing home the eternal redemption contrived by the Father, and accomplished by the Son through the effectual application of the spirit unto God's elect, being the second part of Gospel redemption : wherein the great mystery of our union and communion with Christ is opened and applied, unbelievers invited, false pretenders convicted, every mans claim to Christ examined, and the misery of Christless persons discovered and bewailed / by John Flavell ...The method of grace, in bringing home the eternal redemption contrived by the Father, and accomplished by the Son through the effectual application of the spirit unto God's elect, being the second part of Gospel redemption : wherein the great mysterie of our union and communion with Christ is opened and applied, unbelievers invited, false pretenders convicted, every mans claim to Christ examined, and the misery of Christless persons discovered and bewailed / by John Flavell ...
London: printed by M. White for Francis Tyton, 1681
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
1. Natural. 2. Spiritual.
There is a natural knowledge even of spiritual objects, a spark of nature blown up by an advantageous education, and though the objects of this knowledge be spiritual things, yet the light in which they are discerned is but a mere natural light.
There is a natural knowledge even of spiritual objects, a spark of nature blown up by an advantagious education, and though the objects of this knowledge be spiritual things, yet the light in which they are discerned is but a meer natural light.
And there is a spiritual knowledge of spiritual things, the teaching of the anointing, as it's called 1 Joh. 2. 27. (i. e.) the effect and fruit of the Spirits sanctifying work upon our souls, when the experience of a mans own heart informs and teacheth his understanding, when by feeling the workings of grace in our own souls, we come to understand its nature: this is spiritual knowledge. Now a little of this knowledge is a ⟨p. 140⟩better evidence of a mans interest in Christ, than the most raised and excellent degree of natural knowledge: as the Philosopher truly observes: praestat paucula de meliori scientia degustasse, quam de ignobiliori multa: one drachm of knowledge of the best and most excellent things, is better than much knowledge of common things. So it is here, a little spiritual knowledge of Jesus Christ, that hath life and savour in it, is more than all the natural sapless knowledge of the unregenerate, which leaves the heart dead, carnal and barren: 'tis not the quantity but the kind, not the measure but the savour: if you know so much of the evil of sin as renders it the most bitter and burdensome thing in the world to you, and so much of the necessity and excellency of Christ, as renders him the most sweet and desirable thing in the world to you; though you may be defective in many degrees of knowledge, yet this is enough to prove yours to be the fruit of the Spirit: you may have a sanctified heart, though you have an irregular or weak head: many that knew more than you are in hell, and some that once knew as little as you are now in heaven: in absoluto & facili stat aeternitas: God hath not prepared heaven only for clear and subtle heads: a little sanctified and effectual knowledge of Christs person, offices, suitableness, and necessity may bring thee thither, when others with all their curious speculations and notions may perish for ever.